Red is For Shinigami
by ShadowFireZelda
Summary: The human mind forgets thousands of things a day. It is impossible for a brain to store and remember every piece of information that it comes across, so much of it is automatically filtered and forgotten. Many of these things are never even brought to one's conscious awareness. Is it any wonder then that something as insignificant as color could be forgotten?


**AN: Hey guys, long time no see. I was checking my email earlier and I noticed that I had yet another follow and favorite for Results of Acceptance. I wrote a single chapter for that over 5 years ago, and I occasionally see these messages that someone else had followed or favorited. Well today I decided that I was going to do something about it. It is 11:30 pm, I have class in the morning, I haven't written any fanfiction in 4 years, and I am absolutely ready to do this, so let's go! I have decided to restart the story as I feel that I can do a much better job than I did before. So, without further ado, let's do this!**

Ichigo's breath came out in unsteady gasps as he watched his soul chain rapidly grow shorter its encroachment progressed. Urahara had told him that he would have three days to reclaim his Shinigami powers or become a hollow.

Time had been hard to keep track of, a combination effect of the painful process of encroachment, and the fact that it was always daytime in the chamber beneath the store, but he guessed that his three days were almost up based on how little of his soul chain remained. Looking on as his last link began to disappear, he glared at it as if willing it to stop, but he knew that was useless. The only way to stop it was to become a Shinigami.

Ichigo ignored the pain, and once more closed his eyes in order to concentrate. Contrary to what he had initially expected, finding his reiryoku had been a simple task. Having already been using it as a Shinigami before Rukia's brother had forced her powers out of him, he had at least the awareness to find his reserve of power, and as such had found his power within the first hour. Since then; however, he has made no progress whatsoever in regaining his Shinigami powers. He tried everything that he could think of, but nothing so far had worked.

No matter how he twisted, or turned, or moved the reiryoku, it refused to do anything other than make small gusts of wind. It had taken him until the second day to realize the problem. His power didn't feel like it did when he was a Shinigami, or like Byakuya's or Renji's power. It felt like a regular plus soul's power, albeit a ridiculous amount of it.

He knew that he wasn't the best sensor in the world, but as it had been explained to him by Urahara, the major reason for that was that he had little control over his own reserves and constantly emitted reiatsu which masked all of the surrounding signatures.

Sensing his own power however was easy for much the same reason: it was everywhere around him. In fact, the only way that he was able to perform any sort of sensing technique at all was by using that excess ambient reiatsu he produced to manipulate the other power signatures into reiraku, or spirit ribbons.

This thought caused a faint echo of a memory to flash across Ichigo's mind, but as he chased after the memory his concentration faltered. A particularly strong surge of pain from the encroachment made thinking almost impossible for a few minutes until it subsided temporarily.

As Ichigo opened his eyes he noticed something very quickly: he was no longer inside of the pit in Urahara's basement. This was fairly important as it meant one of two things. Option A was that things had gone horribly wrong, he had become a hollow before being swiftly executed by Urahara, and that this was what happened to souls after they were killed. Ichigo doubted that this had occurred as he still remembered who he was, and he was fairly certain that didn't happen when you were put back into the cycle of reincarnation. So that left option B: he had somehow made some progress on regaining his Shinigami powers.

With a quick grin, Ichigo looked at his surroundings. All around him was a vast empty space that was colored a bright white: a color that he associated with basic plus souls. This didn't surprise him, but the return to thoughts about color once more sparked a memory.

Creasing his brow as he concentrated, Ichigo suddenly remembered something that he had been told by Ishida of all people. Ishida had just recently informed him that Shinigami reiraku were red! If he couldn't find his Shinigami powers, then all he had to do was follow the red ribbon!

Condensing his reiatsu around himself, Ichigo formed the spirit ribbons that he had used only a few times before with a speed created by desperate hope. Quickly the space around him was filled with white ribbons flowing in all different directions, but he was only interested in the single red ribbon that trailed off into the distance.

Back in the real world, the observers of Ichigo's attempt to reclaim his power were ignorant to his windfall. They watched as his chain consumed itself completely, and a white substance started to burst from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Tessai looked to his boss with a grim face and said, "What do we do now? Do we put him down? Before he becomes a threat?"

Urahara shook his head, his eyes never leaving Ichigo. He had a serious look and his fan was put away as he replied, "He can still do it. Besides, it's not like he would be a threat either way. Let's give him a bit more time."

Tessai merely turned his attention back to the pit, and the rapid hollowfication that was taking place inside of it.

Ichigo sprinted as fast as he could, hand never leaving the red spirit ribbon. As he ran, he took the time to look at all of the white ribbons around him, wondering where they led. Touching the one closest to him out of curiosity, he was once more reminded of when Ishida explained spirit ribbons to him. Shaking his head, he reached out to one a bit further away and another memory assaulted his mind. This time it was of Urahara throwing him down the pit three days prior.

'So, they're memories?' Ichigo thought to himself. He shook his head and refocused his attention on his task. Just as he was about to put all of the ribbons except the red one from his mind, he noticed a blue ribbon that was almost hiding behind the mass of white. 'I don't have time to be exploring this right now, I have to become a Shinigami before it is too late.' Ichigo thought, but the blue ribbon stayed in his mind.

He noticed how as he drew closer to where the red ribbon was leading him, the white ribbons began to be left behind, until all that was left was the red ribbon and the blue. In fact, the blue seemed to be leading to the same place as the red ribbon.

He heard them before he saw them. The ground was starting to rumble, and he heard a loud clanging sound as he drew nearer. Before long he spotted two small dots in the far distance that became steadily bigger as he approached. There were two men locked in a heated battle. Swords clashed several times in quick succession, and sparks flew through the air.

The first man was where the red ribbon led him. A pale figure, who seemed to be a copy of Ichigo, but without any color excepting his yellow eyes. The blue ribbon led to the other man, who was a tall figure in a long coat. He had long dark hair, a scruffy goatee, and sunglasses. Ichigo paused as he watched their fight continue for a few seconds before they both jumped away from each other.

The copy glanced at Ichigo before calling over to the other man, "Hey old man! It's too late now. He's here.", before he burst into maniacal laughter. The older man looked at Ichigo and spoke, "Don't listen to anything he says Ichigo. Your encroachment has progressed far enough to have created a hollow inside of your soul, but if you take my sword now it may not be too late to reclaim your powers!" A box appeared to the right of Ichigo with a sword hilt protruding from the opening.

Ichigo was confused by this situation, but what the old man said made sense. The copy of himself was a pale white color, and had the yellow eyes of a hollow. Only one thing didn't match up. The red ribbon led to the hollow, not the old man.

It was then that the hollow chose to make his opinion of this known and he charged at the dark-haired figure. Their fight was resumed. Ichigo looked between the two, and as he did so he noticed another box with another sword hilt on his left, where the hollow had been standing. It seemed to Ichigo that the hollow had no patience for explanations, and was making his intentions known through action.

Ichigo looked at the two men fighting, and then at the offered swords. He reached first for the one on his right, but snatched his hand back before grabbing it. He looked once more at the fight before his eyes narrowed in determination.

The old man felt Ichigo grasp his hilt and smirked at the hollow. He knew that Ichigo wouldn't trust something that was so like a hollow. As he watched the hollow's face, the look of anger he had been expecting did not appear. Actually, the hollow was laughing, which made no sense. He had lost, why was he happy? With a sinking feeling in his gut, the old man turned to where Ichigo stood and gasped.

Ichigo stood where he had been left, each hand grasping a different sword as he glared at both the old man and the hollow before he roared defiantly and pulled both swords from their boxes.

**Hey guys. I took a long look at Results of Acceptance's first iteration and as I thought about how to make it work better, I was struck by an epiphany. Why did the spirit ribbons take Ichigo to Old Man Zangetsu if only Shinigami had red ribbons? This idea in mind, this new first chapter was born. Let me know what you guys think, and I will try to have another chapter out by next Friday.**


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